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Character analysis where are you going
Into the wild character analysis
Into the wild character analysis
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To be called a phony is to be called fake, something that no one wants to be recognized as. Throughout one’s life it is inevitable that one will meet a person who fits the criteria of a phony, which is generally one person’s idea, rather than a set definition. Some base phoniness off of certain actions and behaviors, such as hypocrisy and frequently lying, although for others it is pushed to the extreme, in which phoniness, can be found in everyone, through any action. As for Holden Caulfield, a seventeen year old boy who is thrust into adulthood, after being kicked out of Pencey Prep School in Pennsylvania, and decides to stay in New York City for a few days before going home, he finds himself surrounded by phonies. Holden is able to call …show more content…
Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye”, the novel’s protagonist, Holden Caulfield, by being forced to grow up, has become extremely judgemental of others, and while he calls other’s phonies, he himself is …show more content…
While Holden is in the city he recalls that “[a]t the end of the first act we went out with all the other jerks for a cigarette. What a deal that was. You never saw so many phonies in all your life” (Salinger 164). Meanwhile Holden is doing the exact same thing, he is calling other people fake for doing, proving that he is equally as flawed as everyone else. No one is immune to Holden’s view of how people should act, and how they actually do, not even his family. Holden mentions how his father, a lawyer, and his brother D.B., a famous author, do things for the wealth and power, and he finds this wrong and phony. For Holden, the word phony has a much greater meaning than it does to any other person and while the word is commonly used throughout the text when Holden often complains about life like any other teenager, he contradicts himself, lies, and is a phony at times. Holden tells the reader, “I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It's awful. If I'm on my way to the store to buy a magazine, even, and somebody asks me where I'm going, I'm liable to say I'm going to the opera. It's terrible” (22). By admitting this Holden is making himself less a phony than the others, because he is able to recognized
Since Holden was isolated from his family, in order to not get hurt again he tries to find hypocrisy in people to stop himself from trusting others. Holden feels isolated after being sent to a boarding school that “was full of phonies” by his parents (Salinger 90). Salinger’s message to the audience with this quote is that when
The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, is a classic novel about a sixteen-year-old boy, Holden Caulfield, who speaks of a puzzling time in his life. Holden has only a few days until his expulsion from Pency Prep School. He starts out as the type of person who can't stand "phony" people. He believes that his school and everyone in it is phony, so he leaves early. He then spends three aimless days in New York City. During this time, Holden finds out more about himself and how he relates to the world around him. He believes that he is the catcher in the rye: " I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in a big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around-nobody big, I mean-except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What have I to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff..." (173). He briefly enters what he believes is adulthood and becomes a "phony" himself. By the end of the story, Holden realizes he doesn't like the type of person he has become, so he reverts into an idealist; a negative, judgmental person.
Page 38 is a typical example of how Holden values the qualities of purity and innocence. He attempts to throw a snowball against a car and fire hydrant, but quickly refrains from doing so, “the fact that he does not throw the snowball is “an attempt to preserve innocence (graham 2007:39). I strongly agree with this statement, as Holden’s fear of change is highlighted throughout the novel, which in turn paints a clear picture to the reader of Holden’s deepest desire, which is to preserve the innocence of childhood that gets hopelessly lost in the“phony” world of adulthood. Holden’s constant referral to adults as being “phony” is rather ironic as he says that one “wouldn’t” know If one was “being phony” this clearly means that he himself does not realize weather or not he himself is phony.
Holden often talked about how phony people in his life were, however, he was also a phony, which made him a hypocrite. Holden would often mention things he hated that someone did, but sooner or later Holden was guilty of doing the exact same thing. In chapter one Holden is hypocritical towards his older brother, D.B. He says “Now he’s out in Hollywood, D.B., being a prostitute.”(Salinger
He also dislikes movies. “If there’s one thing I hate, it’s the movies. Don’t even mention them to me.”(2). Holden think that actors are phonies . He also thinks his brother D.B sold out for the financial success of Hollywood. Holden calls everyone phonies because they have a different perspectives and they don’t think like him. It is a way for Holden to separate himself from other people. Holden thinks the world is about to get him. Holden is a hypocrite because he calls people phonies but he said “I am the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It is awful.”(16). This quote show how of a terrific liar Holden really is and how he is not reliable.
In the novel The Catcher In The Rye, the protagonist Holden Caulfield views his surroundings with hypocrisy and contempt in an attempt to avoid the corruption of adulthood. Holden places himself above the crowd because he believes everyone acts phony. In the process, Caulfield reveals his true problem: his refusal to change.
of them, but he doesn’t see he is already a phony. Holden finds hypocrisy in almost everything he sees but does not yet even realize. that he too is part of that corrupt world the minute he stopped being a child and wanted to be an adult. Holden fears becoming an adult in mind and heart, but wants to become one. one in his actions, he said.
Holden makes reference to the word "phony" forty-four separate times throughout the novel (Corbett 68-73). Each time he seems to be referring to the subject of this metaphor as -- someone who discriminates against others, is a hypocrite about something, or has manifestations of conformity (Corbett 71). Throughout The Catcher in the Rye, Holden describes and interacts with various members of his family. The way he talks about or to each gives you some idea of whether he thinks they are "phony" or normal. A few of his accounts make it more obvious than others to discover how he classifies each family member.
Holden uses the word phony to identify everything in the world that he rejects. He always sees something wrong with everybody. People are too talkative, too quiet, or just weird. He thinks that he is the perfect person but no one believes that he is. With this, Holden believes that he is surrounded by "phoniness." Holden lives in Ossenburger Hall, which is named after a wealthy Pencey graduate who made a fortune in the discount funeral home business. Ossenburger went to the chapel and made a speech that lasted about "ten hours." Holden goes on to say that he cracked about fifty corny jokes and then Ossenburger emphasizes that "he talked to Jesus all the time, even when he was driving his car." Holden thinks this is a load of crap and asserts, "'that killed me. I just see the big phony bastard shifting into first gear and asking Jesus to send him a few more stiffs" (17). Holden can't believe what he just heard. He sees this big "phony" praying to Jesus to send him some...
that he is trying to hide his true identity. He does not want people to know who he really is or that he was kicked out of his fourth school. Holden is always using fake names and tries speaking in a tone to persuade someone to think a cretin way. He does this when he talks to women. While he is talking to the psychiatrist he explains peoples reactions to his lies like they really believe him, when it is very possible that he is a horrible liar and they are looking at him with a “what are you talking a bout?” expression. Holden often lies to the point where he is lying to him self.
Many of the times that Holden criticizes people, it is something he does himself. (Pg 13) “. one of the reasons I left Elkton was that I was surrounded by phonies.” Holden himself is many times what he refers to as a “phony”. He knows that he lies and pretends to like people that he would rather not be with.
Holden doesn?t like people who are phony but he acts phony himself all the time.
From the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, the youthful protagonist Holden Caufield, employs the word “phony” to describe the behavior of a number of characters including Mr. Spencer and Ossenburger, however it is not them who are“phony”, it is the young main character. First, Mr. Spencer, Holden’s ex- history teacher, is not described as phony, but according to the adolescent, his choice of words are. Secondly, according to our main character, Ossenburger is not the generous philanthropist he portrays himself to be, but rather a greedy undertaker. Lastly, the protagonist could quite possibly be the authentic phony. All in all, the main character’s use to describe many other characters in the book is with the single word phony, when in fact the word phony would be the most probable word to describe the lead character.
The novel unearths the falsity of society, showing how phony it truly is, by using the principal of Pencey Prep, Mr. Haas. He is a perfect embodiment of Salinger’s idea of what it means to be insincere because Salinger displays society’s willingness to go against common morals to fit into societal norms. Just as Holden calls everyone a phony, in reality he sees society as phony. Holden says, “One of the biggest reasons I left Elkton Hills was because I was surrounded by phonies. That's all. They were coming in the goddam window. For instance, they had this headmaster, Mr. Haas, that was the phoniest bastard I ever met in my life” (Insert Page). Salinger specifies that the headmaster would target the “fat and ugly” parents, greet them in a very bogus and superficial manner, and
Throughout "The Catcher in the Rye", Holden Caulfield always points out the people that are phony. This usually means that the person isn't true to themselves or tends to lie a lot. He uses the word frequently to describe people and assumes that most people are phony. He uses it to describe people he has never even met before. The people that are interested in how they look or appear more than how they really are. The people that don't say a lot of honest...